In Sky
Island, a children's book by L. Frank Baum (author of The Wizard
of Oz), one half of the Island is the Blue side, ruled by the cruel
Boolooroo. His favorite punishment is to "patch" people, slicing
them vertically in half and attaching one person's half to another's.
Here is one example of a patched person, Jimfred Jinksjones (his alterego
is Fredjim Jonesjinks). Since this is a magical country, no one is killed
in the patching process.

As Jimfred
explains: "They cut two of us in halves and mismatch the halves
half of one to half of the other, you know  and then the other two
halves are patched together. It destroys our individuality and makes us
complex creatures, so it's the worst punishment that can be inflicted
in Sky Island...If your half wants to do something, the other half is
likely to want to do something different, and the funny part of it is
you don't quite know which is your half and which is the other half."

Happily,
the good guys oust the bad Boolooroo and repatch everyone back together
properly.